Outside Of Time

1571 Source of Authority (2)

Trees swayed violently, and the grass and plants in all directions seemed to transform into malevolent spirits. All the vegetation was stimulated, growing madly, causing the power of wood to surge in an instant.

The city roared as everything associated with metal was affected. Whether it was magical artifacts, treasures, or anything made of metal, they all suddenly trembled and were forcibly controlled, rising into the air from their respective places.

From afar, the scene in the sky was utterly shocking as these elements converged abruptly.

The sky rippled, and an immense heavenly fire appeared out of nowhere, its crimson flames spreading, covering the auroras, and burning wildly like a flowing sea of fire, pressing downward.

Its aura was majestic.

At the same time, the surroundings twisted, and from the air, the bodies of countless cultivators, and even all things… anything connected to water began to ooze out, enveloping everything like a swampy sea emerging into the world.

This was no longer like the battle with Lingdu where Xu Qing the elements descended in the form of the Heavenly Dao. Instead, under Xu Qing’s will, they erupted in the form of Dao marks of authorities.

The instant they were displayed, a storm brewed.

In the eyes of that middle-aged cultivator, this scene transformed into an internal roar of disbelief and a sense of shock far greater than when his authority had previously been wrested from him.

“Five authorities!!”

“Impossible!”

Waves surged in the middle-aged cultivator’s mind, as though millions of lightning bolts were erupting at the same time.

From what he knew, five authorities were enough to be listed among the eight great stars.

Most importantly, he had never heard of anyone at the Soul Accumulation realm possessing five authorities.

“Who the hell are you?!”

The middle-aged cultivator was thoroughly shaken. However, he clearly wouldn’t receive an answer and Xu Qing was already approaching.

At the next instant, a rumbling sound erupted near the city gate.

The surroundings were chaotic and it was difficult for outsiders to see the battle clearly.

If one’s cultivation wasn’t high enough, they might even collapse from just a glance. Even if their cultivation was good, if they hadn’t reached this level, what they saw would only be abstract scenes.

Because they couldn’t understand.

The inability to comprehend led to a chaotic mind, making it difficult to form coherent images.

As a result, they couldn’t perceive that amidst the abstract, distorted scene, beyond the five elements, space was shifting, and time itself was freezing in place.

A long time later.

As a sword light flashed, the abstract scene of chaos and distortion returned to normal.

In the scene that appeared, the middle-aged cultivator stood on the spot with blood flowing from his mouth and disheveled hair.

A sword impaled through the top of his head and through his body.

Blood pooled all around him.

Xu Qing stared at the middle-aged cultivator from mid-air.

The middle-aged cultivator raised his head with great difficulty and looked at Xu Qing.

He seemed like he wanted to say something, but as he opened his mouth, blood blocked his words.

Xu Qing didn’t have the desire to listen to him. With a raise of his hand, he withdrew the Emperor Sword.

The middle-aged cultivator’s body shook and the light in his eyes dimmed.

Under Xu Qing’s grab, the other party’s authority over the rain transformed into crystalline water that flew out of his body and fused into Xu Qing’s five elements.

The water element of the five elements suddenly strengthened.

Even Xu Qing’s aura was slightly more powerful than before the battle.

Other than that, he also took the storage ring of the middle-aged cultivator.

Additionally, Xu Qing clearly sensed that his perception of the other tokens had increased tenfold at that moment.

At the same time, a new ranking emerged in Xu Qing’s mind.

1,145th in the Southern Starfield!

The surroundings were completely silent.

Xu Qing glanced at the corpse standing there. With a raise of his hand, everything collapsed. Even the traces of the battlefield here were erased by his authority.

“If I had such a change in thoughts when I fought with the person guarding the spirit mine, then perhaps I wouldn’t have to waste Ninth Grandpa’s sword energy.”

After Xu Qing thought about it, he still felt that even if he had comprehended it back then, there was a high chance that he would still have to use sword energy.

Under the situation where he didn’t know about the outside situation, grasping the opportunity to kill in one strike was the best choice.

At the thought of this, Xu Qing no longer thought about the past. Instead, he stared into the distance.

“I can’t stay here for long.”

His body swayed and he instantly left.

…

Crimson auroras flowed in the sky.

In the world, the rainbow that Xu Qing had changed into was rushing at an extremely fast speed.

While he was vigilant of his surroundings, he was also thinking about this battle.

At the end of the day, the main focus of this battle was the transformation of his five elements into authorities and grasping the other party’s authority.

This matter was very helpful to Xu Qing’s understanding.

This allowed Xu Qing to verify his previous judgment. Hence, he had more ideas about the Ruler realm.

Before this, Xu Qing knew that in the cultivator system, the Nihility realm was the process of comprehending the rules and laws of heaven and earth.

The four stages within it all followed this principle, advancing progressively until the Nihility cultivator could master all the rules of their world’s Heavenly Dao, enabling them to form their own great world.

Xu Qing understood that the mastery referred to did not mean becoming the source of the rules, but rather understanding them and obtaining the right to use them.

In other words, it was about comprehending the world they were in and using that understanding to weave their own great world.

Overall, it was like a process of accumulation.

Xu Qing’s direct advancement to the Soul Accumulation Realm from the Nihility Realm also fell within this scope.

On one hand, he had accumulated enough understanding back then. On the other hand, the origin essence of Nether Flame’s body contained everything and was extremely pure.

Hence, after combining the comprehension of the Ten Extremities from the Profound Earth, Xu Qing made use of these accumulations and the nourishment of the origin essence to break through to the Soul Accumulation realm.

Even forming seven great worlds.

Soul Accumulation was a term used in Wanggu. In other places, this realm was also known as the Immortal Accumulation.